Tell If You're Being Catfished !!

I would like to thank CiCi Dawn for this awesome video on Tips To tell If You're Being Catfished. I organized it into a wiki for anyone with a hearing impairment, or for those who just prefer to read the steps. Hope you enjoy

Steps

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Hey, guys, what up

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OK, so today, I'm like wired. I filmed like 5 videos tonight because I am freaking... I took a nap, so it's just a long ordeal, but I didn't even tell you guys, I have tank tops on sale, and the quote is, "Be somebody who makes everybody feel like they're somebody," because I really am all about making people feel special, making people feel welcome, making people feel included, and not left out. That's kind of my whole premise that I've given my life.

But other than that, I want to make people feel loved, and my favorite song of all time is by For King and Country, and it's called "The Proof of Your Love," and I will link it below, if you guys want to listen to it. It's so great. I have literally loved that song, probably since it first came out, and I think it came out in like 2011, 2010... a long time ago. And I'm actually going to see For King and Country, hopefully, so I'm so excited.

James, who is another awesome worship singer... those are her brothers! They're related, so, that's so cool. And his wife's name is Courtney (Luke, one of the guys in the band), so there you go, fun fact. It's not me though.

Anyway, today I'm going to talk about my catfishing story and my obsession with catfish and all things catfish

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I don't know if you guys have ever seen that documentary, or you've watched the show on MTV, but basically the premise of Catfish is one person is talking to another person via internet, and it can move from internet to texting to whatever, but you never officially meet the person. So you don't know if the person who you're talking to is really the person or not, and the term "catfish" comes from the documentary.

His name is Neve. And now he runs the whole show, which is cool. And he was talking to her and they decided that they were going to go meet her because things were starting to not add up, and they ended up catching this other elderly lady. Well, she wasn't elderly, but she was probably like 40s or 50s, and she was talking to him the whole time, she made all these fake profiles, and it was just a big ordeal. And she was married, which is crazy.

I'll put the info to that in the description box below too, because that documentary was so good. And usually it takes a captivating documentary to get me to watch it, but I was obsessed with that. I rewatched it again, probably daily.

I got cable now, so all is good in the 'hood, you know. And, no really, it's great, and I'm just so obsessed with stalking people and figuring out if people are real and reverse image searches and catching people in lies, and all that, so I was so excited to make this video because I cannot wait to tell you the story.

I've got my personal Facebook and then my CiCi Dawn Facebook, and then I have a fan page too, but I actually have a friend page that you all can add me on if you want to. And it's an actual friendship, add as friend, page, not just a thumbs up and like me page. So, I was on that and I get messages from a lot of young people every day, so I'm reading through and there's this really cute guy, and I'm like I'm not going to deny that he is cute... like so freaking cute.

He is like, "Hey, I know this is weird, but I'm a guy and I like to watch your videos and whatever

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They really help me in the sense that they make me feel good about myself. You're funny, you're inspiring," all this stuff, and I'm like, "Oh, thank you." And not really thinking anything of it, and I replied back, "Thanks," and he's like "Yeah, I live in Vegas too, anytime you ever want to hang out or meet up, definitely let me know. I go to UNLV also," which is the college here. Las Vegas has like 3 million people, so everyone goes to that one college practically. Well, they also go to CSN, which is the community college, but UNLV is the big school.

So I was like, "Oh, awesome, what's your major?" And it was this big, cool thing, and I was like OK, yeah, cool, but I could tell something was weird because I went and looked on all of "his" profile pictures, and they just were so grainy and blurry, and then there were some of them that were too perfect, and they all didn't look alike

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And you can tell when they all don't look alike, like they're a little bit different. They were very similar. It's a similar couple of guys, but they were completely different. I just knew.

So I was like, I'm not going to talk to this person because I just had..

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I don't know. I think we. It's funny, this whole week for me has been about instincts, but back when this was happening, I really had these instincts, like there's just something not right about it. And I think when you start to think of worst case scenarios or bad things, or a bad thing that could happen, the majority of the time, if it's your instincts, you are correct.

So, then I kept messaging "him" or whatever and then, you know what, after about a day, I really thought about it and I really prayed about it

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I was like no, because stories weren't adding up, things were being... it just wasn't all fitting, and I just felt like, you know, if I'm going to... Well, too, I was thinking long-term, like where is this going to go? Where do I want it to go? And I want to see someone active (this is just for me, but for dating), I want to see someone active in their faith. I want to see them coming to church, hanging out with people, reading their Bible, inspiring me to read my Bible, things like that.

And so, not saying that I wasn't going to give this person a chance, but I was like, you know what, like I'm trying to really focus on me and my relationship with God, and a bunch of other crap that I've got to deal with, so I said, you know what, if you want to come meet me, come to church

So that's how I knew it was going to be my test, and I go to Tuesday night, I wasn't even expecting anything, didn't come, and I'm like of course, so I log back on and get a message and it's like, "Sorry I couldn't make it

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My mom was in a terrible car accident." Which by the way, one of the main things that happens when you are getting catfished are these crazy stories about crazy things, like people getting killed and hurt and whatever. I've done so much researching on catfishing because I'm like obsessed.

There is nothing good that ever happens when... there's some stuff that's good, but it's usually bad news after bad news after bad news. So, I messaged the person, and I was like I'm going to see if I can trick this person, and get them to confess, basically. So I messaged them back and I was like, "I can't do this anymore. I already know what you're doing. I've known for some time. I would appreciate it if you would... I don't know who you are because I know that your pictures have been stolen from another person... blah blah blah, whatever."

And this was going completely off of a guess, right, and you know how on Facebook, you can see where it was read and what time it was read..

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it wasn't responded to for like days, and I was like yeah, I know. Then the person ended up confessing, and being like, "I'm so sorry, I really do watch your YouTube videos. I live in this state (it was some other state, like Ohio or something, I don't know). I am not a boy, I'm a girl. Those pictures are from a guy from my high school. Whatever, blah blah blah."

So I think you should act on your instincts, and I think too, I don't know... there's something where you just really want to believe that this really hot person likes you. But, come on. I'm not saying that hot people can't like you, but what I'm saying is it just... I don't know. You just kind of know.

Does she really think Little Bow Wow was... Okay, that's my favorite episode of Catfish, where the girl thinks that she's talking to Little Bow Wow because I'm like clearly he's a celebrity. Would a celebrity be talking to you, who is nobody, when he could get practically anyone in the industry? And I'm not saying that to be rude. I'm saying that to be practical. Like celebrities don't usually like to date people who aren't celebrities for many different reasons, and if you're a celebrity, you usually date celebrities, so I just feel like... I don't know, they don't match up.

I'm so passionate about it. I just feel for everyone who keeps pursuing these things even though they know deep down inside that it's not true, and I just washed my hands clean of the situation. I'm done encouraging and making everything seem like oh, it's so great. It's like, y'all are dumb. OK? I'm all for loving people and embracing people and accepting people, and not judging people, but are you kidding me?

I cannot. I just have zero mercy because it happened to me and I was one of those dumb people and it's just like, aaahhh! Now I know sometimes it can work out and everything is fine, but these are just my tips for kind of figuring out...

You want to Skype with the person, you want to see their face, see if they're real, you want to say, "Literally, send me your picture, holding my name up on a sign, with this date, saying 'Hi, Cici, this is me, blah blah blah." Take that picture, send it to me

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Don't send it to me in 20 hours, don't send it to me in 6 hours, because you can Photoshop it if you like. Send it right now. Real proof.

So you're telling me you have no social media presence at all? I know not everyone has a Facebook, which is fine... you don't have Twitter, you don't have Google Plus, you don't have Instagram, you don't have SnapChat, you have nothing? You have an iPhone, but you have nothing... I'm real confused her, okay?

Number 3, when you give me your name and I type it into Google, and there's no record of you ever living, especially in the state that you say you're living in, that concerns me also

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Especially if you're in a certain profession that is so easy to track because you can see, for example, let's just say that the person is a veterinarian, okay? So you would type in CiCi Dawn, veterinarian, Las Vegas, Nevada. If nothing pops up, that's a bad sign because those are public records, so those should definitely pop up.

So I just feel like some people are so easily fooled, maybe they don't want to know, but you have to..

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I don't know, I just ... this floors me. I wouldn't be on this show so I can freaking help me find these people because it's ridiculous, and it takes a really sick and twisted person to take another person's pictures, steal another person's identity.

So my camera died, but basically (because I've been talking so freaking much), I just want you guys to be safe

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Please don't share personal information about where you live exactly and where you go to school and this and that, because you never know who you're talking to on the other side. And also too, like I said, it just takes a really sick person to manipulate and make you think you're talking to someone when you're not. And I'm all for internet dating. I have a lot of friends who met over the internet who have awesome, happy, amazing marriages and things like that, but I think you need to be safe and I think you need to use your judgment.

And, like I said, if you're giving these intentions of wrong things or bad things or worst case scenarios, then you should act on that

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And I know, know, know from personal experience because I've been there, I don't... you almost feel like you have to, like you're never going to meet someone, and that this is great and whatever, but I promise you guys, you will meet someone and don't feel like you ever have to, even for an ounce, settle or sacrifice just because someone on the internet who may or may not be real, and might be using other people's stuff, wants to talk to you.

And so, I just say this with love, and I just say this as your YouTube big sister and stuff because I've been there, and I know I felt like if this person is real, I could be living this amazing life and whatever, and I'm not going to lie, was I super hurt

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Yeah. But I'm glad that I didn't take it any further and actually share like deep, intimate, personal struggles and things I've been through because that is just even more heartbreaking.